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DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MOBILE APPLICATION FOR MONITORING AND COMMUNICATION WITH PATIENTS WITH IMMUNE-MEDIATED INFLAMMATORY DISEASES TREATED WITH BIOLOGICAL THERAPIES

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European Statement

Clinical Pharmacy Services

Author(s)

ROSA MARIA ROMERO JIMENEZ, VICENTE ESCUDERO VILAPLANA, ESTHER CHAMORRO DE VEGA, MARIA FERRIS VILLANUEVA, ELENA LOBATO MATILLA, DANIEL GOMEZ COSTAS, JUAN VICENTE VALOR, ANA HERRANZ ALONSO, MARIA SANJURJO SAEZ

Why was it done?

BT for patients with IMID have increased the effectiveness, but also with adverse events (AE) or problems in their administration. In addition, patients have greater formation and communication needs. We wanted to develop an app to improve communication and monitoring of these patients.

What was done?

In 2020, we developed a mobile application (app) to improve communication and monitoring of Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) patients treated with biological therapies (BT). We implemented the app in December 2020.

How was it done?

A multidisciplinary group composed of pharmacists, dermatologists, rheumatologists, gastroenterologists, and nurses designed an app for IMID patients in a tertiary hospital. The app consists of the following modules: Medication, Questionnaires, Adverse Events (AE), Useful Information, Messages, and Patient Profile. We offered the app to IMID patients who initiated a new BT. We performed an observational, longitudinal study to assess the app’s impact on medication adherence, safety, and communication. The inclusion period was from December 2020 to August 2022. The inclusion criteria were age ≥ 18 years, diagnosis of an IMID, and ownership of a Smartphone. Patients with language barriers were excluded.

What has been achieved?

380 patients were included (mean age: 43.6 years [SD=13.9] and 58.3% were female). Concerning the type of IMID, 61.1% of patients had a rheumatologist disease, 26.3% a dermatologist disease, and 12.6% a gastrointestinal disease. The mean follow-up time for app use was 20.5 (14.5) months. In the Medication module, 100% of patients registered their biological therapy and 51.1% also used this module to record each dose of medication administered. 85.3% of patients had adherence >90%. A total of 433 AE were registered. 31.3% of patients registered at least 1 AE. The most frequent AEs were fatigue (32.1%), injection site reaction (15.2%), headache (11.8%), and diarrhoea (8.3%). 53% of patients used the Messages module to communicate with healthcare professionals. The most frequent messages concerned doubts about managing AEs (29.8%), logistical and citation issues (20.8%), and drug interactions (17.9%).

What next?

The next steps will be that the app can be used in other hospitals in our country and also adapt the app to be used in other pathologies.

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